Read about our ecocell day in London on Saturday 21st January 2012
After some of our ecocell members performed at Greenbelt and also provided materials and space for ‘prayer for the planet’, fellow Christians are encouraged to join us and we welcome your prayer on the page Pray like a Prophet.
The ecocell programme, organised by Christian Ecology Link, can be seen as a journey, or pilgrimage, to be travelled by groups of friends, neighbours, or church or faith group members.
The final destination of this pilgrimage is sustainable living, in our personal lives. When we reach it we will be living within the limits of the resources available on Earth, and of the Earth’s capacity to absorb our waste products, perhaps our greatest challenge in the 21st century. In practice this means action to avoid (further) climate destabilisation, species extinction and depletion of non-renewables.
Through ecocell we hope to fulfil our personal responsibilities to Creator and Creation. But, more importantly, we can use our personal demonstrations of what can be done to support campaigning at parochial and political levels. People are more likely to listen to those who walk the talk.
You don’t have to commit to the whole journey initially, just to ecocell 1, the first stage, and perhaps go on from there.
In ecocell 1 “First Steps to Low Carbon Living” - members learn further about the main issues that give rise to ecological damage, discuss the influences on our collective and individual behaviours, measure our personal impacts (footprints) and take action to minimise those impacts. CEL, through the ecocell programme, provides relevant expertise directly or indirectly (e.g. by references to the best literature). We will also provide prayers, poems, stories and group activities to help us reflect and to inspire us to action. We get further on a journey if we make it an exciting and interesting experience. This stage can be completed within a few months, but each group sets its own pace.
ecocell 2 “Journeys in carbon-free discipleship” is for those who are willing to take on the very demanding commitment of completing the journey to sustainability. We will commit ourselves to getting our carbon footprints down to the actual level required for sustainability. We will also ensure that we respect the laws of nature, in which we see the hand of our Creator, and the needs of the natural world, in all aspects of our lives.
ecocell 2 is for people who have completed ecocell 1, or an equivalent programme. It will involve significant further learning, very committed action at the personal level, and at the local political level. Like in ecocell 1, we will be supported through prayer, poetry, stories and group activities, and by a range of resources available from CEL. We anticipate that this stage will take a period of about five years, to make the necessary changes in our lives.
ecocell 3 will take the form of on-going support groups for those who have concluded Stage Two. Participants continue to be supported through an on-line community.
Contact us if you would like to embark on the journey – or to join us at the second stage of it.
We want to hear from you if you can offer help in developing the programme. We are building up a team of people who can offer support in technical or organisational areas or with spiritual guidance.
Contact
Tony Emerson, ecocell Programme Co-ordinator, 44 Leigham Vale, Streatham, London SW16 2JQ,
T. 020 8769 4078; E: tony.emerson12@btopenworld.com
For a fuller description of the ecocell prgramme download The ecocell Concept .
ecocell 1 can be downloaded from http://www.greenchristian.org.uk/ecocell/ecocell-1
ecocell 2 can be downloaded from http://www.greenchristian.org.uk/ecocell/ecocell-2
